Tai Mei Tuk

The lull of water against the shore, the smell of grilled meat in the air, 1980s Cantopop blasting from a boombox strapped to a tricked-out bike. Tai Mei Tuk is a getaway – its name means "the very end" – but it's a distinctly Hong Kong kind of escape. Caught between Tolo Harbour and a razor-sharp ridge of mountains, Tai Mei Tuk village is nothing if not picturesque, and there are plenty of ways to enjoy the scenery: by kite-flying, fishing, rowing a boat, collecting shells from the beach, barbecuing and munching on Thai food. Grab a bike from one of the many rental shops and make your way across the Plover Cove Dam, where you can watch the sun set over fishing boats and distant highrises.• Take green minibus number 20C or bus number 75K from Tai Po Market MTR station

Choi Lung Restaurant

Choi Lung dim sum restaurant has been operating from the same ramshackle house at the foot of Hong Kong's tallest mountain, the 957-metre Tai Mo Shan, for more than 40 years. The restaurant opens with the dawn's chrous at 5am every morning, and draws a motley crowd of villagers, hungry city-dwellers and weekend hikers, who sit on plastic stools in a bare-bones dining room eating specialities like black bean ribs with rice, quail egg wontons and black sesame rolls. Keep an eye out for locally-grown produce like watercress and choi sum, which are in season in the early winter. • 2 Chuen Lung Village, Route Twisk, Tsuen Wan. Open daily 5am-3pm. +852 2415 5041

Tai O Heritage Hotel

Tai O Heritage hotel

Two hours from Central, the stilt house-lined canals of Tai O feel a world away from the skyscraper canyons of urban Hong Kong. Tourism has given the fishing and salt-farming community a new life, and there are a number of cute cafes and hole-in-the-wall shops selling local specialties like dried shrimp paste, but the pace is still relaxed. So relaxed, in fact, you might want to stay for a day or two. If that's the case, aim for the newly-opened Tai O Heritage Hotel, housed inside a 110-year-old former police station with a pitched tile roof and colonial-style arcades. The hotel's nine elegant rooms — with dark wood floors, brick fireplaces and French doors — are seductively peaceful; just about the only thing you'll hear is the wind in the trees and the occasional passing boat. Since the hotel is non-profit, all proceeds are donated to Tai O cultural organisations. •Shek Tsai Po Street, Tai O, Lantau Island. taioheritagehotel.com. +852 2985 8383

China Beach Club

China Beach Club Photograph: Christopher DeWolf

Half an hour by ferry from Central, Mui Wo is a collection of scruffy hamlets – weatherworn houses and shacks interspersed by banyan trees and overgrown gardens – which are home to indigenous villagers and liberated city folk who spend the day cycling around in shorts, flip flops and hand-me-down T-shirts. Every so often, a water buffalo wanders down the main road, and nobody notices. Fifteen minutes by foot from the ferry pier is the China Beach Club, where Mui Wo's character is distilled into an eclectic bar and restaurant with birdcages hanging from the ceiling, black-and-white photos of Lantau on the wall, and a cast of friendly dogs and cats who roam around the place. You'll find an assortment of comfort food on the menu, like moussaka and Thai curries, and most dishes are big enough to share. Grab a seat on the balcony, where you can look out over Silver Mine Bay while the waves lap against the shore. •China Beach Club, 18 Tung Wan Tou Road, Mui Wo, Lantau Island. Open Friday-Sunday and public holidays, noon-11pm. +852 2983 8931

Wing Wo Bee Farm

Wing Wo Bee Farm Photograph: Christopher DeWolf

Unlike their Western counterparts, Chinese bees are so tame that beekeepers don't even wear protective gear when handling their hives. They also make delicious honey, which you can taste for yourself at the Wing Wo Bee Farm, a family-run operation in the lush, fragrant hills of Sha Tin, less than a 10-minute walk from the MTR railway station. For the past 30 years, beekeeper Yip Ki-hok has been cultivating delicious, distinctive honey imbued with the taste of Hong Kong's lush terroir. Yip and his wife live on the farm in a modest, low-slung house with more than 50 wooden beehives scattered beneath towering ap geuk mok trees in their yard, soundtracked by the gently ringing bells of a Buddhist temple next door. In the winter, the bees create a rich, creamy honey from the trees' flowers. Spring honey comes from lychee and longan trees, which give it a fruity, almost smoky sweetness. •136 Pai Tau Village, Sha Tin. wingwobeefarm.com.hk. +852 2691 7917. Opening hours vary; call ahead before visiting

Barbecue at the Pinewood Battery

When the temperature and humidity drops in November, it's time for one of Hong Kong's most cherished pastimes: barbecuing. Supplies can be purchased at nearly every supermarket, and hundreds of public barbecue sites are scattered throughout the city's beaches and parks, drawing weekend revellers armed with fishballs and honey-glazed chicken wings. One of the most atmospheric spots to barbecue at is the Pinewood Battery, a second world war ruin located in a country park halfway up Victoria Peak. In the midst of abandoned bunkers and gnarly trees, with the city's skyscrapers visible in the distance, you'll find a cluster of basic barbecue pits. Late-night barbecues are fun and spooky, as the fire crackles and hisses and wartime ghosts make strange noises in the woods. Just remember to bring a torch, because there are no streetlights at the Battery. •Pinewood Battery is in the Lung Fu Shan Country Park. To reach the barbecue site, take the number 13 bus from Central to its terminus at Kotewall Road, next to the University of Hong Kong. Follow the signs from there

Ma Po Po Farm

Ma Po Po Farm Photograph: Christopher DeWolf

Ma Shi Po ("Horse Shit Pond") is one of the last agricultural communities left in Hong Kong. Its days are numbered, as an army of suburban high-rises marches ever closer to its farms and rice paddies, which are ringed by dense subtropical forest north of Fanling. But it isn't going anywhere without a fight. Two years ago, Ma Shi Po native Becky Au quit her job in the city to return home, where she now runs the Ma Po Po ("Baby Horse") organic farm, which plays host to a twice-weekly farmer's market, gardening workshops and even the occasional concert. Visit the farm to taste some of the best produce Hong Kong has to offer: sweet Chinese greens in the winter, lychees in the spring, mangoes in the summer and wild bananas in the autumn.•Every Wednesday and Sunday, 2pm-6pm. Entrance on Mak Sik Road, opposite Wing Fai Centre, Fanling. mapopo.wordpress.com. +852 9761 6123

Junk trip

Junk trips are a summer tradition in Hong Kong, when locals and expat residents take to the water in a variety of vessels, from Chinese-style teak junk boats to sleek luxury cruisers. Typically, a group of friends charter a boat for the entire day, departing in the morning from a public pier and anchoring for several hours of swimming, sunbathing and watersports at one of Hong Kong's many secluded coves. If you don't happen to have 25 junk-mates at your disposal, make some new friends on the regular all-day cruises offered by Island Junks. One tour makes its way past the crowded sampans of Aberdeen Harbour and the cliffside mansions of Deep Water Bay, before heading south to the scraggy island of Po Toi. Drinks are included in the price, so grab a glass of rosé and let the waves lull you into a happy place.•Island Junks, from HK$550 per person. islandjunks.com.hk. +852 2877 5222. Aqua Luna, from HK$380 per person. aqua.com.hk. +852 2116 8821

Ping Shan Heritage Trail

Ping Shan Heritage Trail Photograph: Christopher DeWolf

Most of Hong Kong was sparsely populated when the British arrived in the 19th century, but the fertile valleys of the northwest New Territories have been inhabited for thousands of years. The Ping Shan Heritage Trail is a one-kilometre walk through densely-packed Cantonese villages first settled by the Tang clan in the 12th century. Start at the top of Ping Shan, where a 19th-century police station is now a small museum with views all the way to Shenzhen, the Chinese boomtown across the border from Hong Kong. Descending the hill, the trail takes you past an ornate ancestral hall, old temples and Hong Kong's only ancient pagoda, as well as scenes of everyday village life: ad hoc altars, neighbours chatting outside the local see-doh (convenience store) and brightly-coloured celebratory banners erected for festivals and other special occasions. •Take the MTR West Rail line to Yuen Long station, followed by the light rail to Ping Shan station

Clamming at Shui Hau

There's something therapeutic about digging for clams under a blue sky with the squishy mud of low tide beneath your feet - and Shui Hau, with its mountain backdrop and view out to the azure waters of the South China Sea, is the perfect place to do it. When the tide goes out at this bay on the south shore of Lantau Island, it really goes out, leaving nearly a kilometre of exposed seabed teeming the shellfish. Grab your rake and bucket and dig in. When you're done, head back to shore and present your bounty to the Fung Wong Bungalow Centre, a collection of boxy village houses, where owner Chan Wing will bust out his well-used wok to cook it up for you. •Shui Hau Bungalow Centre, 44 Shui Hau Village, Lantau Island. +852 2980 2325. From Tung Chung MTR, take NLB buses 11 or 23 and get off at Shui Hau Village.